Muffins are Just Ugly Cupcakes
by Running Fate
Summary: "I like muffins more," the girl said. "Muffins are just ugly cupcakes," someone stated, "Like you!" Childish laughter could be heard around room. "You're a muffin, a muffin!" chimed the birthday girl as the laughter got louder, only to be silenced by a punch to the face, followed with crying. This is the tale of Cupcake. Rated T for safety
1. Prologue

Hello! So this is just an idea I had to get out, only a thought. I may continue it, but as of now I'm not exactly sure as to which direction it'll go towards. There will be pairings eventually, if I continue, but I believe it will mostly center on an older aged Cupcake and her life. A bit of angst here and there, possible uncomfortable situations... Like I said, I have no direction with this. Ideas are appreciated! Enjoy~

Disclaimer~ I do not own Rise of the Guardians nor its characters.

* * *

Muffins are Just Ugly Cupcakes

"Who doesn't like cupcakes?" she overheard. It was snack time during preschool, and as a special birthday treat, one of the more favored girls in the class brought in cupcakes to celebrate her special day. Turning around, a large girl shook her head.

"I like muffins more," she said as she licked a bit of the much too sweet frosting off the overly pink decorated pastry. Her peers looked at her in disgrace.

"Muffins are just ugly cupcakes," someone stated, "Like you!" Childish laughter could be heard around room, followed with taunts. "You're a muffin, a muffin!" chimed the birthday girl as the laughter got louder, only to be silenced by a punch to the face, followed with crying.

When she was picked up from the principal's office, the 'muffin' was pouting. Her mother was much too soft to punish her daughter when she saw her eyes, little pools threatening to spill. "What's wrong Muffin?" she asked as she buckled her into her car seat, only to be bombarded by a waterfall of tears.

As they arrived home, the mother could hear a tiny voice mumble through hiccups, "I want to be a cupcake."

Muffins are ugly cupcakes. That's why she strived to be different than who she was. She wanted to fit in, play with the other children, not be judged. Cynthia 'Cupcake' Jones remembered that day perfectly, and looking back through family pictures and memories, she couldn't help but feel that she really looked like a muffin, especially with the cropped brown hair and rather chubby exterior.

They had moved after that year, her father getting a job in the northern part of the states. She was glad too, in a way. Cupcake was able to start all over in kindergarten, telling the teacher to call her by the sweet food and not answering to anything but. Of course that really didn't help with the bullying. 'Cupcake' wasn't exactly a normal name, so when her classmates started making fun of that, she simply just attacked them. She was then feared as a bully, the tough exterior staying and the sweet side hidden inside her.

Things got better when she was at the age of ten, and worse in a way. She still didn't have many friends, just acquaintances, but that one early spring, right after a depressing Easter, she met a bunch that changed her life forever. At first she thought of it as a dream, but it all felt too real. She knew there was a Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and even Jack Frost. She believed, and there were other witnesses too, so she thought. The others, the 'acquaintances', were all convinced it was just a dream, all but Jamie. He believed, and remembered, but when Cupcake tried explaining the story in school the following week, Jamie didn't back her up. They laughed, and the girl felt too betrayed to even threaten and fight.

It was then that she realized she was really alone. The guardians wouldn't come back, why would they? She thought Jamie would have her back, but clearly he just wanted to keep his experiences to himself making a fool out of her. An experience like this should have given a child hope, something to remember and cherish, but it was more like a sweet treat with a horrible aftertaste.

This is the tale of Cupcake.


	2. Chapter 1

Those first reviews made my stomach flutter! Thank you for following, viewing, favoring, reviewing...

I would love to update this everyday, but I do run a busy schedule with fencing and stage crew, so I'm aiming to update every other day. Just don't be surprised if I miss one (Writer's block tends to take over my mind easily).

This chapter is mostly drabble, but also more information on Cupcake's life. I might have gotten a few of the character's names wrong. The internet doesn't have much information on Jamie's friends, so this is what I have scrapped up.

Please enjoy yourself!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians, nor its characters.

* * *

Chapter 1

Fall. It had to be one of her least favorite seasons of the year. The freedom of summer was lost, though the mild heat wasn't, which just added to the greatness of going back to school.

Not.

Looking in the mirror now, comparing herself to the old pictures her mother insisted on putting up in her room, she had changed. The baby fat disappeared, leaving a curvy yet toned body from past years of trying to get into shape. Cupcake was, of course, much taller than before, but still a tad shorter than the average teen. The only similarities between her and the young child were dark brown eyes and matching brown hair, just a shy shorter of shoulder length.

As far as personality went, she was almost the same, just calmer. After the elementary days of putting fear into her classmates, she became a bit of a loner. There wasn't really anyone to talk too, most thought she was still crazy after her Easter tale, though they were all too scared to tell that to her face.

She grew out of rainbows and princesses, the only remaining object left from that phase being Mr. Sparkle, the unicorn. For a while, everything she was into was constantly replaced with the new 'in'. She did make an effort to try to fit in, wanting to be a cupcake, but no matter how hard she tried, she was still a muffin.

That didn't mean the name didn't stick.

'Cupcake' was a name she continued to go by. She didn't try to change it, and no matter how much she disliked it, she could come to hate it either, so she dealt with it. Not to mention, the cruelness of teens wouldn't have called her by her true name anyways.

Turning around and grabbing her bag, Cupcake left her room, walking down the stairs of the house as if she was on deaths row, the agony visible in every step. As she got to the bottom, and turned the corner, she could see that her mom was already up, making a breakfast of eggs and toast. Too bad there was no time to really eat it.

Grabbing a slice and heading out the door, the teen waved goodbye. The small heels of her ankle boots clicked as she walked down the sidewalk to her school, taking bites of toast on the way. It was a bit too warm for skinny jeans and the loose sweater she wore, but thankfully she had a thin striped t shirt on. Hopefully the school's AC would still be on.

...

Life seemed to continue to hate her as she sweated through her first three blocks and lunch. One more class to go, and the probability of it being her favorite class was against her, especially once she saw the occupants filling up the back row. Jamie Bennett and the rest of his troupe of jocks and populars were obnoxiously talking, making jokes. Pippa sat on Jamie's lap as the twins did something stupid, the two laughing along with them.

The four, the ones that she thought were her friends at one point, have changed the most. Pippa was no longer the tomboy she used to be, now the pretty type, with dyed blonde hair and jean mini skirts. Monty, in her opinion, was one of those geeks without the nerdy touch, but instead has a huge ego. The twins were full of trouble, as would be expected, and were so terrible irritating she wondered how anyone else could deal with them.

Then there was Jamie, the worst of the worst, but yet the best. He talked to her, that is when no one else was around, but when his other 'friends' were there, she was invisible. Cupcake wasn't so transparent during the summer, when everyone was away and the much more vacant south side of the town lake was open, or during the winter when everyone else was inside keeping warm and the other was in need of some fun. Cupcake knew that it wasn't a very good friendship, and was probably unhealthy, but it was the only one she had. The random calls and snowballs at her window weren't all bad. Cupcake found it nice to have someone around. They even talked about their problems every so often, about his relationship with Pippa, issues little Sophie started dealing with, his parents splitting...

That had to be when he changed the most. He stopped believing. Jamie was depressed, she knew, but he would never admit it to anyone else. Just her. It was the trust that she liked between them, it just hurt to be ignored everywhere else.

Sometimes it's best to be ignored, though, preferably by Claude and Caleb. Lucky for her, the group only took a quick glance over at her as she walked in, one of the duplicates looking as if they were going to say something before Jamie shouted a greeting. A look of surprise ran across her face, before the others started waving and a voice was heard behind her. Oh, just Monty.

Jamie, though, did send a quick sympathetic smile as the others were distracted, Cupcake smiling just as quickly back before taking a seating the front corner of the room. It was then that she shivered, feeling a small breeze as if someone besides her was blowing on her shoulder. A questionable look grazed her face as she looked to the one sitting besides her. Shock took control.

"Jack?" she whispered, before lightheadedness took over. The last thing she remembered was an equally surprised look falling across the face of someone she never thought she'd see again.


	3. Chapter 2

Happy Monday!

Sorry for the late post... It's been hard week... But here is chapter 2!

Thank you for all the comments, favorites, and follows! Every notice in my inbox has made me so very happy and keep me writing!

To those who want to know what the pairings are going to be, I believe this shall be a JackXCupcake, maybe a hint of JamieXCupcake...

Sorry for the short chapter, but I plan on posting tomorrow as well~

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians nor it's characters

* * *

A cold breeze passed over her face as Cupcake's eyes fluttered open to see nothing but ice blue. Blinking once, twice, she realized that the small pools belonged to eyes, and the eyes belonged to a face, a familiar face. The eyes seemed to smile at the look of surprise on her face as the person backed away, the girl sitting up to see the one and only Jack Frost.

Cupcake was speechless as she looked him up and down, he doing the same. While Jack looked exactly the same, as expected, she looked much different than the short muffin-like girl he knew from the past.

"You can see me?" he asked, the words jolting Cupcake out of her thoughts. She nodded, looking around her quizzically as she faintly remembered falling. Feeling the coarse paper sheet under her and all the diagrams of rotting human bodies (meant to scare students from smoking and whatnot), she assumed she was in the nurses office, and from the looks of things, alone so it was safe to assume she could talk to who the others couldn't see.

"The other's can't," said Jack before she could properly answer his previous question. He took a seat on the edge of the bed, setting his staff to the side before staring at his hands. There was a painfully sorrow look on his face that Cupcake couldn't help but feel pity for. He had tried so hard to gain the belief of the children, but almost none of the original six remembered, none but her.

"They all thought it was a dream, all but Jamie," Cupcake started, "but lately, Jamie hasn't had anything to believe in." Jack's eyes shifted from the hands in his lap to the girl, confused as to why Jamie, of all people, stopped believing. "Divorce," she mumbled and Jack instantly understood how that could break a child's heart.

Cupcake couldn't help but be a bit upset at Jack's spontaneous appearance. He never came back, not even when Jamie and her had whispered and pleaded to the snowflakes for his return, or when she tried to convince the others that it wasn't a dream. She was particularly upset about the time when Jamie needed him most, when he needed something to hold onto but instead let go of everything. She wanted to tell him to suck it up, to not be upset because he brought it upon himself, not coming back when she herself was teased as she told the tale of how they saved the children of the Earth. Yet, she couldn't. She of all people wanted the others to believe, but here was someone who needed it more, whose existence almost depended on it.

"How could they not think it was true?" was all Jack muttered before Cupcake started explaining everything that happened, from that morning after the battle with pitch, through the hard times she had, and the current high school years. The guilt mixed with sadness as she told her story, about the conversations with Jamie and how depressed he really was, when he realized that the girl in front of him was an outsider in this world.

"Why didn't you come back, like you promised?" she asked, shrugging off the apology he started to mumble.

"Being a guardian was harder than expected," he tried to explain, "I had to actually focus and help winter spread during the season."

"But there was winter here, you couldn't have stopped by Jamie's window? Keep him believing? Convince me that I wasn't holding onto a stupid dream?" Cupcake started to get upset. She had felt abandoned by those she never gave up on, and now, six years later, Jack's back, expecting to still be believed in, for everyone to be waiting. Hateful words left her tongue as she gripped the paper sheets with an iron grip, ignoring the rips that were developing. "Why did you even come back? You should have just stayed away and saved yourself the heartbreak."

Wincing at her words, he left her take a breath before turning around, fully facing the girl in front of him. "The guardians need your help," he said, pushing aside their conversation, "Pitch is back."


End file.
